1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for operating Real-Time Bidding platforms where Media Properties (MPs) are characterized and impact levels are determined for different MPs at least with respect to cost per engagement. The present invention also relates to systems and methods for determining impact levels for MPs both in advance of a campaign, as well as re-evaluating impact levels during a campaign to determine how frequently bids should be placed with respect to each MP and what prices should be bid.
2. Prior Art
Real Time Bidding
In an RTB (Real-Time Bidding) environment for electronic media impression auctions, an electronic advertising agency/consolidator operating a demand-side platform receives billions of daily auction opportunities for electronic media impressions from partners like Google®, Yahoo®, etc. These partners operate auctions for ad impressions on various Media Properties or MPs each of which represents a specific instance of a media platform for electronically delivering information to a viewer. An MP as referenced herein usually refers to a website or URL page on the Internet, however may also refer for example and without limitation to verticals, feeds, electronic billboards, television, an App ID, a Game ID, and other electronic media and media channels where electronic advertisements can be placed. An MP representing vertical segments or media feeds enables electronic ads to be placed on any variety or combination of media formats.
When a Demand Side Platform wins an auction for an ad impression opportunity, the partner places the electronic ad based on auction results. A partner's auction is considered an external auction with respect to a demand-side platform, where an internal auction may also be operated to determine which advertisements, also referred to herein as ads, and bids are submitted to the external auction. Each ad impression opportunity includes information parameters about the ad impression—for example, the target website/MP, geolocation of the user, ad size, user cookie, etc, that are used for targeting purposes. The demand side platform then processes hundreds of ads in their system, supplied by advertiser clients along with desired filtering/targeting parameters, against information parameters supplied by the partner, and filters out any ads that do not qualify (for example the ad does not want to target Youtube.com®). For ads that are not removed due to a mismatch with targeting parameters, the demand-side platform then evaluates the corresponding bids that represent how much each client advertiser is willing to pay. The winning bid in the internal auction is then sent to the external auction with the partner to compete for the impression opportunity.
Note that in some scenarios, the electronic advertising agency/consolidator operating a demand-side platform and the advertiser/client may in fact be the same entity—for instance when they comprise a large organization with an internal advertising department capable of acting as a demand-side platform. Also, in such an instance, there may be no internal auction—just a submission to an external auction.
Determining which MPs to bid for, how frequently to bid, and what prices to bid can be challenging in order to achieve the best results for the advertiser/client. One measure of the effectiveness of an electronic advertising campaign is the cost per engagement, and it is useful to develop and deploy strategies for optimizing cost per engagement while achieving successful campaign results in a prescribed campaign run time. MP targeting strategies are needed before a campaign is started, and further, methods are needed for automatically reevaluating and optimizing MP targeting strategies during the execution of an online advertising campaign (the campaign runtime).